Welcome to week three of middle school students acting like idiots. We’ve already seen Kasuga come to regret his decision, so let’s see Nakamura strip away any sense of dignity Kasuga has left. …Literally.

I was just waiting for that awkward moment for Kasuga’s parents to come into his room and see him straddling the uniform after he shouted like that. Hell, there are a lot of places where someone could have walked in and ruin the whole plot, but never did. This anime just has so many conveniently deserted places. Like that library. But at the same time, Kasuga had a hell of a time trying to find a place to get rid of the bag since he’s extremely paranoid. I seriously doubt any of the people he ran away from would have given a second thought about what he was doing, but his paranoia is turning absolutely everyone into an enemy. Even when they aren’t really. Plus he could totally get rid of it now without suspicion since the blame has been placed on a supposed perverted older man. You should be able to guess from his extremely well thought out actions from the previous episodes what Kasuga’s going to do though. Anyways, Nakamura, who technically an ‘enemy’ as well since she’s threatening to tell about his secret, is also his closest ally. Since if he complies with her weird demands, it looks like she won’t do anything. …Other than shoving his face into Saeki’s chest and telling him to write poetry about it or having him sniff her hands.

The story is not so subtly making both of the female leads sex objects. Saeki in her depiction as Kasuga’s “femme fatale” (also, the whole uniform thing) and then there’s Nakamura, who keeps getting close ups of her thighs or other body parts. All of this being from Kasuga’s point of view, so obviously he’s had sexual frustration even before the gym clothes thing (or in other words, he’s like every other teenager). However, where his attraction to Saeki is slightly less creepy, he obviously also sees Nakamura as female. Even after she humiliated him several times and proved that she’s batshit insane. Also a subtle change, but I swear her character design is getting more attractive. …Which is the exact opposite of what I was expecting, but maybe this is their way of trying to get the same gap as the manga between her appearance and actions. Or maybe I’m slowly going insane.

Contrary to popular belief, Aku no Hana is catering to anime moe fans. Look, cosplay! Also, it’s a trap!

On that note, now you should have a better idea of how messed up Nakamura is. She managed to strip and reclothe a struggling guy with ease and in no time flat. It’s kind of impressive, but at the same time, kind of terrifying. Just how much experience does she have with doing this? …Er, anyways, yeah. She’s also openly addressed herself as a pervert and through her shouting, a sociopath. At least she’s honest about wanting everyone to rot away like worms and as you can see, she’s not afraid of telling people to screw off if they piss her off. It looks like she’s reckless and destructive, but yet she’s still capable of doing things like blackmailing Kasuga if it will benefit herself in the long run. Nakamura is not actively going around breaking windows or attempting to murder her classmates. She just has a lot of er, energy and no outlet for it other than occasionally insulting the teachers, so her frustration is pent up and waiting to explode. You can kind of see why she’d be excited to see something like Kasuga stealing Saeki’s gym clothes though since everyone else seems content with the norms. The town is stifling and she’s going to do whatever she can to see Kasuga suffer/pull him over to “her side”.

And yet, despite him being extremely uncomfortable around her, Kasuga still hangs out with Nakamura. It could be that he just doesn’t have a spine, but then he does things like stand up for her. He had no obligation to (even despite the contract) to defend her. He’s even facing problems at home because of her. However, Kasuga knew the truth and still said something, even with his social status at risk and the perfect chance for revenge. Though admittedly, revenge was probably the farthest thing from his mind as much as how do I do this without letting people know that I associate with her? In the end, this was a noble act. He regrets it now, but let’s see where this take him, since Saeki definitely notices him now.

-Insert the same argument of the show being slow here- But on the plus side, the pacing has seemed to pick up a bit. Or at least, this is the most eventful episode yet. So if the first episode was dedicated to establishing the kind of town they live in, the next would be Kasuga’s guilt and this would be… Nakamura I guess. Like I said before, they’ve begun to go into Nakamura a bit more and how she’s insane. Note the word ‘begun’ since she’s only just getting started with her uh, escapades. At least the next episode, Kasuga should start actually talking to Saeki as opposed to watching her from a distance and stealing her possessions.

Nothing to do with anything, but this was the most amazingly animated water I’ve ever seen.

11 Responses to “Aku no Hana – 03”

Heh, I thought the water was a complete cheap out. I am pretty sure it was just filmed footage of the river with a filter applied to make it look a little different, maybe a little lower rez. And then they just drew the two characters in the scene. I don’t think that even counts as rotoscoping.

I was wondering at the scene where Nakamura strips and reclothes Kasuga how much he was really resisting, because it’s damn hard to put clothes on someone who really doesn’t want you to.

…I’m not sure about that. The anime has already had him act more like a pervert then the manga, but then again, he already was freaking out due to the shouting match before and probably did want to get away.

Nakamura is one crazy chick. Seriously. Her ability to strip and redress Kasuga was frightening. Although was Kasuga really resisting. 0_o Because she put it on very easily with no trouble whatsoever. A good kick to her chest/face would have stopped her at least for a couple of seconds Kasuga…

And I wonder why Kasuga defended her? Based on how she is treating him, the contract they had does not involve helping her out with that sort of situation. Of course it seems like he is going out of his way to be with her too(even if he doesn’t want anyone to know he is walking around with her). Why do I have the feeling these two are going to end up as a couple? >_>

You kind of have to wonder about Kasuga’s common sense. He could have gotten rid of the gym clothes a million times by now, and yet, he still has them and even went running with them while shouting in a totally public area. Maybe he just wasn’t smart enough to figure out that he could get away >.>;

I’m pretty sure he was just trying to be a good guy with Nakamura there. It wasn’t about Nakamura herself, but more like the gang mentality was going and he was the only person capable of stopping it. Or maybe I’m just overestimating his character.

You don’t have to wonder about Kasuga’s common sense. He has none. There’s no wondering to be done. With them saying they’re in ‘middle school’, maybe he gets a little more of a pass (they sure don’t look like middle-schoolers, tho, maybe that’s big downside to the rotoscoping).

The story continues on to high school, but yeah which I apparently forgot when writing the OP lines to this and have promptly fixed.

…If you’re talking about the woman with the moustache, I have no idea what possessed them to throw that in there (along with sideburns/braids girl). Ahaha… maybe they were short on actors or something.